_South China Morning Post_ - 25 October 1992
_Gay couple escapes mainland repression_
SAN FRANCISCO: A gay couple from China has been granted asylum in
Australia to avoid persecution back home.
The two men are believed to be the first homosexuals granted
refugee status in Australia based on their sexuality.
"Gays and lesbians are migrating to the relative safety of
the United States, Australia and other countries to escape prison,
torture and death squads in other countries," said Ms Julie Dorf,
executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights
Commission in San Francisco.
Another 10 homosexual men and women are thought to be
applying for asylum in Australia, most of them from China,
according to the Refugee Advice and Case Work Service in Sydney.
The Refugee Advice Service said the Chinese men were
granted refugee status earlier this year based on their sexuality.
The men entered Australia four years ago on student
visas, and then applied for refugee status.
China has a brutal approach to homosexuals, who are
considered "immoral, delinquent, decadent and abnormal",
according to the commission.
It said China's attitude to homosexuality was making
homosexuals in Hongkong extremely nervous, because the territory
would revert to Chinese rule in 1997.
There are rumours of a so-called "pink-list" which
names men and women living openly as homosexuals in Hongkong,
who could be victimised five years from now.